Questions Surround Death Of Haitian Woman In ICE Detention Center
By BIN
May 2, 2025
Lawmakers are demanding answers after a woman from Haiti died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
According to NPR, 44-year-old Marie Ange Blaise died last week at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Blaise's cause of death remains unclear, but Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D), a Haitian-American, suggested that she may not have been given adequate medical care.
"Marie had been complaining about chest pain for hours," Cherfilus-McCormick said on the House Floor on Wednesday (April 30). "They gave her some pills and told her to go lie down. Unfortunately, Marie never woke up."
When announcing Blaise's death on Tuesday (April 29), ICE noted that "at no time during detention" is a detainee "denied emergent care."
"All people in ICE custody receive medical, dental, and mental health screening and 24-hour emergency care at each detention facility," the agency said.
According to ICE, Blaise entered the U.S. without admission or parole "on an unknown date and place." U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers encountered Blaise in February while she was boarding a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina at the international airport in Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
"On the same date, CBP issued Blaise a Notice of Expedited Removal, charging inadmissibility as an immigrant without a valid immigrant visa," ICE said.
CBP initially sent Blaise to ICE custody in San Juan, Puerto Rico before transferring her to Louisiana's Richwood Correctional Center. Last month, Blaise was transferred to the Pompano Beach detention center, where she died three weeks later.
On Wednesday, Cherfilus-McCormick said she has plans to visit the facility and call for a "full, independent investigation" into Blaise's death.
"Her loved ones deserve answers," she said. "They deserve accountability — like so many immigrant families who have their loved ones missing and who are hurt."
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